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| Peter Hayward |
Samsung Heavy Industries has recruited an occupational safety engineer from Australia to beef up its tarnished image following a series of safety-related lapses in recent months.
Korea's third-largest shipbuilder said Monday it hired Peter Hayward as an executive director in charge of overseeing the firm's safety-related matters. The company had been looking for an engineer with extensive knowhow and expertise in the field since July for its newly established safety management division.
Hayward, 57, began his career at ExxonMobil in 1982 as a health and safety engineer whose primary task was to inspect facilities, machinery and safety equipment to identify and correct potential hazards.
The Australian has also worked with other big oil companies and engineering firms over the past 35 years, accumulating extensive knowhow in the areas of health, safety and environment.
While serving as a safety manager at global engineering firm WorleyParsons for 10 years, he oversaw a number of plant construction projects in Australia, Thailand, China and other countries.
"We have high expectations for Hayward who will greatly help improve our occupational safety," a company official said. "We will continue to do our best to make our shipyards accident-free and bolster workers' wellbeing."
On May 1, five people were killed and 20 others injured at Samsung Heavy's main shipyard on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, after part of a crane fell on employees working on a ship. Two cranes, 60 meters long and weighing 32 tons, collided causing a structure to fall from one of them.
The company suspended operations for 15 days.
Then, on May 17, two days after resuming operations, a fire broke out at the same shipyard. The blaze claimed no lives but damaged the plant's cooling system, according to firefighters dispatched to the scene.
The incidents were said to have tarnished the shipbuilder's image and made it more difficult for the firm to secure new contracts from abroad.
From 2014 to 2015, the company posted huge losses after losing billions of dollars from delayed offshore plant projects and canceled ship orders, amid the global industry slump. To cope with falling orders, the shipbuilder has been downsizing its workforce and suspending operations at several docks.
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